Sunday, April 6, 2008

The New Move - Fashion At Its Best

The month of March proved to be and experimental month, yielding great rewards. In addition to selling my usual litany of couture items, I ventured into selling used items that were in mint condition. These items, are items of little to no sentimental value. The idea popped into my mind after searching throughout eBay looking for any new trends in the fashion market. I noticed that there were many items that were selling for large amounts that were marked as used. This gave me an idea. I figured that if I was able to find used items that I could sell, I could use the profits from these items to put back into my business. I happened to stumble across a few items in my wifes closet that I knew would sell for a pretty penny. Since she is now an avid collector of Coach bags, I noticed that she no longer used her Dooney & Bourke handbags, allowing them to collect dust on the shelves. After searching eBay to examine what used sales for this bag looked like, I saw some pretty intriguing figures. Thus, I quickly listed two of the bags. They both sold for about $90!!! In addition, I was able to utilize a promotional sale on eBay ( $.01 listing fees) to decrease my overhead. Thanks to the success of these items, I can now use these profits to got towards purchasing more inventory. Another experiment that I embarked upon came to me after doing research and a subsequent report on eBay Powersellers (Elite eBay sellers that have reputable reputations, yield high selling amounts, and behave exemplary within the eBay community). I noticed that eBay Powersellers who were selling similar items that I was, were selling these items for a lot more. I hypothesized that because of the highly esteemed Powerseller status, buyers felt more comfortable buying from sellers within the ranks of this exclusive tier. My hypothesis proved to be right on target. I purchased a pair of jeans (Rock & Republic) and gave them to a business aquaintance of mine that attends Rowan University. He recently attained powerseller status, and has subsequently saw an increase in his selling profits. These jeans, that I usually sell on average for about $85 sold for $124, a very significant increase. Because we frequently do business together, I received the cash from this transaction, only paying for the listing fees that he incurred in reference to the jeans. This strengthened my resolve to swiftly move into the Powerseller ranks!!! In other news, I have really started to see the effects of eBay raising their final value fee prices. The jump, from taking 5% of your final selling price to a wopping 8.75% has started to, cut into my profits. However, this months promotional penny listings helped to balance this inflation out a bit.

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